Essence of Time unit in Donbass. Nov-Dec 2014. Mars: Winter campaign

The previous stage – carrying out tasks in Yasinovataya and Panteleimonovka – became decisive for me in choosing my specialization. To be more precise, Essence of Time Independent Tactical Group (EoT ITG) Volga chose my specialization by handing me a sniper rifle, but I gladly jumped at the chance. You bet I did, given that in my past, pre-war life one of my hobbies was rifle shooting, though an air rifle, but nevertheless it was it, the shooting, which allowed to enter my valued state of specific tranquility and concentration. I have no idea how the commander guessed this, but I am very grateful to him for choosing me. Some time later the commander got another rifle, and my friend and comrade Liteyshik and I became the first sniper pair of our unit. Later in the airport five snipers were in EoT ITG.

The personality of the sniper significantly affects his tactics. This way, our snipers on the “Monastery” position worked very differently: some love risk and single combat, and often works from unprepared positions (usually in order to lure the enemy’s sniper out); some love to calculate everything and prepare the safest positions possible.

The nature of the tasks of the unit on that stage was conditioned by our presence on the clearly visible positions known to the enemy, and which had limited possibilities in terms of creating multiple sniping positions. We had to limit ourselves to creating only four permanent enclosed sniping positions, three of which were, in practice, bunkers inside of the main building. The positions were fortified in such a fashion that could withstand a hit of 14.5 caliber bullet (this caliber easily pierced through the thick exterior wall built from firebricks), and, in reality, due to the design features it allowed to protect the shooter in case of a tank shell hit in the area of the hospital.

The specific characteristic of the work in the airport was that the possible positions of the enemy were on the front approximately 400 meters wide, distance to target – starting at 650 meters, plus the side wind. To organize a systematic observation of the landscape, which can be seen from the positions, combat deputy Iris and sniper Orekh equipped all positions with photos of the view with a reference grid. Now the observers, machine gunners and snipers spoke the same language – square number and the following specification of the target’s position by the nearby landmark.

The main task of snipers was to suppress the sniper pairs of the enemy, represented, usually, by Dragunov sniper rifle and Kalashnikov hand-held machine gun with a laser target pointer, as well as to “harass” all of their secluded spots during the operation “Vasya in the house”. As to the sniper pairs of the enemy, even though they were active in the beginning, but then, as a result of our work their activity pretty much came to naught. When I say “our work”, I mean the work of all of the ITG, since if the sniper’s positions has been discovered, then he was “harassed” by the whole team, including large-caliber “Utyos” machine guns, automatic grenade launcher and a pair of Kalashnikov machine guns.

During the operation “Vasya in the house” the task of the snipers was to fire at hard-to-reach positions, such as holes in the walls of the terminal created by tank shell hits. As a rule, the enemy used such small natural embrasures, but there was one peculiarity: the load-bearing walls of the terminals were made of concrete, which extremely contributed to ricochets, and, consequently, to the likelihood of a hit, which we used to our advantage. Once, during a massive night breakthrough of military hardware to the terminal with the use of incendiary projectiles and a smoke screen, it was exactly the usage of smoke by the enemy that worked to our benefit: laser beams became visible, and their owners immediately regretted this.

I want to tell a funny story. I think it was in mid-December when suddenly a dense fog descended. It must be said that in the recent days it was quite boring anyway: ten times a day all of the unit received orders not to open fire, and the guys started to get dull, and then there was this fog. I was on duty together with Pyatnitsa that night: half of the night I was on duty, another half of the night he was on duty. And this utter boredom: quiet, zero visibility, Ukrop wave is silent, I had already cleaned all of my weapons… And then I accidentally found an old 1945-made flare gun inside the desk. I thought, “Oh! Great! Something to clean!”, and then I thought, “Wait! I’ve got an idea – let’s ‘launch a night attack’ on the ‘Tower’ (the air traffic control tower in Donetsk airport, which was under the enemy’s control – Editor).” I took the green flare gun projectile and fired in the direction of the enemy.

My God, the things that started there… The terminal came to life in the fog, Kalashnikov machine gun on [Ukrainian] “Polosatik” position fired some two hundred bullets aiming at nothing – pure fun! That’s when Pyatnitsa woke up, evaluated the situation, took out a Chinese flashlight – it seems that he was preserving it for the New Year’s, but this was worth it – and the “Drone launching” operation started. It must be said that all of this looked quite sinister in the fog… And then the “drone”, gradually gaining altitude, slowly drifted in the fog in the direction of [Ukraine-controlled] Peski village. That’s when the people in the “Tower” snapped. To put it briefly, the “request show” continued for another half an hour, at the end of which we fired a red flare – “for the group to retreat”))).

Of course, the successful accomplishment of the tasks was in major part determined by the material and technical aid, which was provided by Essence of Time and the patriots who sympathize with our cause. Because no war is possible without being supplied with the required equipment, warm clothes and food. I especially want to thank the people who sent us high-quality scopes and, particularly, night vision and infrared scopes. It is sole pleasure to work with these highly sensitive pieces of equipment. With these night vision scopes “Utyos” machine guns and Dragunov sniper rifles allowed to fight the enemy on equal terms, while the infrared scopes allowed to easily detect the military hardware from over than a kilometer away.